Healthwatch

PARKLAND (CBS4) -Nearly two weeks after he reported his wife Rosann missing, Neal Rosen is speaking out about how he said he was treated by Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives.

“They were treating me like I killed my wife,” Neil Rosen said,

She has since been found. Rosen has not seen her. He thinks it’s because Broward investigators are holding a grudge over a murder case they could not prove against him more than two decades ago.

“I was worried sick,” Rosen said of his experience July 24th, when he got a text message from his wife.

“It was a suicide text message,” Rosen said. “I pulled over on the side of the road, called 911, and the harassment started from that point on.”

Rosen, now a dealer in luxury automobiles, has a checkered past. He spoke exclusively to CBS4 News on Tuesday for the first time since his wife disappeared.

In 1992 he was acquitted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, beating waitress and part time model Michelle Davis with an iron and strangling her in a jealous rage. The case against him was circumstantial. The lead investigator at the time thought Rosen got away with murder.

Rosen was later charged with stalking an ex-wife. He did two months of a 221 day sentence, only to be re-arrested after making threatening calls to the same woman on the day he was released from jail.

Rosen said investigators immediately pointed suspicion at him when he reported his current wife missing last month.

“I went down to the police station. They did a lie detector test on me,” he said. “The first question asked me was, did I deliberately kill my wife?”

Police located Rosann DiFiore 8 days ago, had her temporarily hospitalized at Broward General Medical Center for mental evaluation, and now won’t tell Rosen where she is.

Rosen says his wife has not responded to calls, texts or emails.

“Has it occurred to you that your wife might not want to see you?” asked CBS4’s Gary Nelson.

“That’s her choice,” Rosen replied. “But we have a child. She needs to talk to her son.” The couple has a son, Nicholas, 19. Rosen said his wife has not communicated with their son who is distraught.

Mike Jachles, a spokesperson for the Broward Sheriffs Office told CBS4 in an off-camera interview, “We’re not going to comment on the case, except that within four days the wife was found safe and sound.”

Rosen thinks cops have poisoned his troubled wife against him, that they are still bitter over the murder case they were unable to prove against him in 1992.

“I think that they are filling her head up with garbage,” Rosen said.

Rosen’s attorney, Scott Hecker, said police wasted precious time focusing their efforts on the husband.

“We don’t believe it was handled properly,” Hecker said. “They endangered her by not handling it properly. If she had gone through with her suicide attempt, we would have that issue to be dealing with.”

The attorney said he will file a formal complaint with the Sheriff’s office over the behavior of investigators on Rosann’s missing persons case, and a civil suit is also a possibility.

Rosen says police found his wife’s car at a Hampton Inn, just blocks from the Fort Lauderdale law office where she worked as a paralegal, only after he begged them to have Lexus activate the tracking device on her car, a sporty IS250.

“I would like to get an apology and get my life back,” Rosen said. Rosen’s attorney said the husband has abundant resources to see that his wife gets the best mental health care in a private facility, and that her best interests are not being served by police blocking the husband’s access.

Jachles, the spokesman for BSO, said, “We stand by our investigation. Our concern is with the victim’s safety and well being.”

The spokesman did not elaborate on his use of the word “victim” in describing Rosen’s wife.

Rosen said there has never been a threatening or violent moment in his relationship with Rosann. “Never, not once in 26 years,” he said.